Girl about town Jenny Block was a busy bee on Friday. First, a stop at Marty Walker Gallery, followed by the ELLE Decor Dining by Design Cocktail Preview Party.
Lest you think I was at home watching Law & Order (though that sounds like heaven), I was out myself, at the Reebok Heroes of Baseball pre-game gala. The headliner was Whoopi Goldberg, who was surprisingly (and thankfully) dirtier than I would have guessed. But poor host Finesse Mitchell. He did the same routine as last year. Sigh. The upside: the Gilley’s bartenders pour a mean margarita on the rocks.
Read on for Jenny’s full report:
I had forgotten how much I like the simple, stark space, all crisp walls and sharp corners. In the main gallery is an exhibit called “Pan de Uno,” a group of small gouache drawings by Jody Lee. The palette is lovely–muted blues, blacks, pinks, and the like. And the shapes are sculptural, stacks and curves and amoeba-like forms of varying sizes. The pieces invite conversation about space and movement and relation of objects one to another. Very cool.
Some of the drawings are framed, simple white box frames in which each drawing seems to float. But other pieces were simply attached to the wall, without frames. Walker says she gets tired of all those frames and wanted to try something new. It worked.
In the smaller gallery, Walker is showing a collection of sculptures by Jay Shinn. The exhibit is appropriately called “Columns.” The tall, narrow pieces of unfinished wood twist and curve and are painted with simple, white geometric designs. They looked like trees in a tiny, zen-like forest. The shows run until July 22.
After the gallery opening Friday night, I went to the ELLE Décor Dining by Design Cocktail Preview Party at the Dallas Market Center, a fundraiser for DIFFA, co-chaired by Wayne Goodwin and Donna Fishel. It was glamorous and fabulously fashion-y, as you would expect.
The tables were gorgeous. My absolute favorite was designed by Jeffrey Horn and Bryan Long, who, interestingly enough, are the co-chairs of next year’s Collection event for DIFFA. They assured me that it’ll be even more fabulous and outrageous than this year’s–not an easy feat. But after meeting them and seeing their table, I have no doubt they’ll pull it off.
Their table featured miniature birds’ nests with tiny robin’s eggs nestled inside. Suggestive of elaborate, Victorian bird cages, the nests were perched on wire frames that arched over each plate. The chairs were high stools with low backs and comfy cushions in a warm, muted blue-green color. Every detail at the table was carefully attended to. Lovely, really.
The event drew an impressive crowd, of course. Bill Mackin, Ken Downing, Gary Elam, Jan Showers, Geoffrey Henning, Jean Marc Daucourt (from Jean Mark Vodka), and Shannon Hori, just to name a few. The food was delicious, the pink vodka drinks were a little too good, and the crowd was enviously attractive. Oh, and a package to see Madonna in NYC was auctioned off and raised $4,000.
